Ever had a sense at a meeting that your Board or Council is doing everything it has to do, but none of the things it really wants to do? Ever felt like you're always in a "fire fighting" mode, solving one crisis after another? Are your agendas too "reactive", driven by forces outside your control? Does the work of your Council or Board appear mediocre and uninspiring?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you're not alone. Many Boards and Councils are far too reactive. Driven by anything but a clear and compelling vision of their organization's future, they wander aimlessly in the comfort and safety of the status quo. They languish in mediocrity and may even be driving themselves towards oblivion, because they stopped being relevant to their constituents.

Recognizing the need to be visionary and proactive, many Boards and Councils go away on a "retreat", hire a professional facilitator, and come up with fantastic and elaborate mission and vision statements and strategic plans. They return all "fired up", ready to start a revolution...

But then reality sets in, and - at the next meeting - everyone settles right back into the same old routine. The mission, vision, and strategic plan gather dust on the shelf. Maybe next year, with a new Board, this futile exercise will be repeated. After all, it is fun to dream....

How can you avoid this common phenomenon? How can your Board or Council put your mission and vision statements to work? How can it stop operating "from the ground floor", focusing on minutiae and making narrow-sighted decisions, and instead get into the habit of operating "from the balcony", looking at the future and delivering excellent and sustainable decisions for your organization?

To operate at a visionary level and deliver excellent results, your meeting agendas should always have proactive components. With the exception of routine items, agendas should have a strategic focus, and all decisions should be driven by long-term objectives.

Here are a few ideas to help your Board or Council operate in a visionary and proactive manner:

• Make sure you have clear and compelling statements of your organization's mission (articulating "the business" you are in and how your organization is supposed to be making a difference to the constituents it serves) and vision (stating how your organization is supposed to look and operate in the short and long terms).



• Establish a "macro agenda", which would be a detailed and prioritized work plan on how your Board or Council will advance the organization towards its strategic goals during a given period. Break this work plan into components along which progress can be facilitated and monitored.



• Schedule items from the "macro agenda" on the agenda of each meeting. This way, in addition to the things that must be done (reactive agenda items), you will have discussions of long-term priorities (proactive agenda items). If your "macro agenda" includes ten priorities and you have ten meetings a year, you can schedule one proactive item for discussion at each meeting. After a year, you'll look back with pride at the progress your Board or Council has made.



• During meetings remind members - subtly or directly - of the organization's mission and of the constituents it is mandated to serve. Some groups print their mission statement on large banners to hang prominently at their meeting rooms. Others engrave it on coffee mugs, water glasses, or coasters, as a constant reminder of the group's broader mandate. Others have the mission statement read aloud at the start of each meeting. At the end of each meeting they ask the obvious question: How much strategic progress did we make today?



• Let members know it's OK to say things like.: "How will this decision advance our core mandate?" Or: "I am concerned about the amount of time we're spending on this agenda item, when we have more strategic issues on our agenda". Or: "How does this proposal support the principles of transparency, accountability, and fiscal sustainability that we endorsed as part of our strategic plan?" Or: "Is this an issue that the Board should be discussing, or should we delegate the decision to the CEO? It feels like we're on the ground floor right now, when we should be on the balcony".